Rethinking the Coverage Model in the History of English Language Course (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Medieval Association of the Midwest (MAM)
Organizer Name
Audrey Becker
Organizer Affiliation
Marygrove College
Presider Name
Audrey Becker
Paper Title 1
Finding the Language of Our Past in Twentieth-Century Conversations: A Methods Approach to Teaching History of English
Presenter 1 Name
Trini Stickle; Kelly D. Abrams
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Western Kentucky Univ.; Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
Paper Title 2
Teaching HEL via Dictionaries and Primary (Literary) Texts
Presenter 2 Name
Matthew Brumit
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Mary
Paper Title 3
A Linguistic Approach to Non-chronological Sequencing in the History of the English Language
Presenter 3 Name
Daniel R. Davis
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of Michigan-Dearborn
Paper Title 4
Rethinking the History of Writing . . . in the History of English
Presenter 4 Name
Eric Bryan
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology
Paper Title 5
Online, Redesigned, Theme-based, and Future-Focused: My New HEL Course
Presenter 5 Name
Margaret Hostetler
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Univ. of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Start Date
11-5-2018 10:00 AM
Session Location
Sangren 1740
Description
Compressing 1500 years of English language history into a 14-week semester poses no shortage of challenges. Not only does the traditional History of the English Language (HEL) course aim to impart foundational knowledge from a range of disciplines—linguistics, geography, social and political history, grammar, and literature—but content-dense textbooks presuppose copious knowledge with which many students—especially North American students—have limited familiarity. In “The End of the History Survey Course: The Rise and Fall of the Coverage Model” (2011) Joel Sipriss & David Voelker trace a century-long academic debate on the merits and limitations of the “default” coverage model, a model which privileges content knowledge and facts over disciplinary methods and critical thinking. Their informed arguments for “[dislodging] the coverage model” in the history survey course may productively be applied to the HEL course. This roundtable panel aims to reassess the coverage model and examine the efficacy of innovative approaches to teaching Old, Middle, and Early Modern English as part of the HEL course, featuring papers that evaluate HEL course design and/or explore pedagogies which displace or supplement the conventional coverage model in the teaching of HEL.
Alison (Ganze) Langdon
Rethinking the Coverage Model in the History of English Language Course (A Roundtable)
Sangren 1740
Compressing 1500 years of English language history into a 14-week semester poses no shortage of challenges. Not only does the traditional History of the English Language (HEL) course aim to impart foundational knowledge from a range of disciplines—linguistics, geography, social and political history, grammar, and literature—but content-dense textbooks presuppose copious knowledge with which many students—especially North American students—have limited familiarity. In “The End of the History Survey Course: The Rise and Fall of the Coverage Model” (2011) Joel Sipriss & David Voelker trace a century-long academic debate on the merits and limitations of the “default” coverage model, a model which privileges content knowledge and facts over disciplinary methods and critical thinking. Their informed arguments for “[dislodging] the coverage model” in the history survey course may productively be applied to the HEL course. This roundtable panel aims to reassess the coverage model and examine the efficacy of innovative approaches to teaching Old, Middle, and Early Modern English as part of the HEL course, featuring papers that evaluate HEL course design and/or explore pedagogies which displace or supplement the conventional coverage model in the teaching of HEL.
Alison (Ganze) Langdon